“We Were Promised: How an Appalachian Grandmother Fought a Corporate Giant” by Julia Flint is the story of Karen Gorrell and retirees at Century Aluminum fighting to recover health insurance benefits canceled by the company. (Photo provided)

PARKERSBURG – The story about a Mineral Wells woman who fought a corporation for the insurance benefits for all its retirees has been memorialized in a book.

“We Were Promised: How an Appalachian Grandmother Fought a Corporate Giant” by Julia Flint is about Karen Gorrell, who led the efforts against Century Aluminum of Ravenswood when it canceled the contractually promised medical insurance for retirees.

“I’m beyond thrilled about it,” Gorrell said. “In today’s world people need to know they can make a difference.”

That’s the message Gorrell hopes the book will convey, that no matter how large the task is before them, people can make a difference.

“We found out a small group of people can change the world,” Gorrell said.

Century Aluminum in Ravenswood, which closed in February 2009, in 2010 canceled insurance

for retirees who were Medicare-eligible, then for younger retirees in 2011.

The company settled with the retirees for $23 million in February 2017.

Gorrell, whose husband, Mike, was a Century Aluminum retiree, was the face of the public fight to get Century Aluminum to honor its pledge in the contract to the retirees.

She was not a member of the union, but attended and organized numerous public rallies and attended meetings of the Century Aluminum board of directors to protest the injustice.

Century Chairman Terrence Wilkinson spoke to Gorrell at one of the meetings, she said.

“He said he was proud of me,” she said. “I think he respected me because I treated him with respect.”

Nonetheless, retirees faced hardships over the lost insurance, Gorrell said. They would skip medicines or take them every other day and some, she believes, died because of that.

“They were hard times,” Gorrell said. “Sometimes we got knocked down to the ground, but we always found a way to get back up.”

Relations began to change when Michael Bless became CEO of Century Aluminum, succeeding Logan Kruger. Bless and Gorrell developed a friendship that has lasted over the years after the insurance issue was settled.

“We have kept in touch pretty frequently,” he said.

Bless has read the book and said among his favorite parts were learning more about the retirees he knew were involved in the negotiations, but had no interaction with them, like putting a face to a name.

“It helped me understand some of the people who I never met,” Bless said.

Bless said he wasn’t surprised someone would contact him about a book. It is a story someone needed to tell, he said.

“But I was surprised someone was going to write a book about it,” he said

Bless retired four years ago and lives with his wife in rural Connecticut.

Flint contacted him two to three years ago and began interviewing him for the book.

Research on the book began in 2018, said Flint, who at the time was working for the Appalachian Institute at Wheeling Jesuit University.

Flint said she was motivated to write the book after speaking with Gorrell and retirees from the plant. Their stories were inspirational, she said.

“I thought it was incredible what they have done,” Flint said.

So much information was available and the subject matter could have been the basis of a movie and a book, Flint said. She decided to write a book.

“I realized then there was a lot there,” Flint said. “The more I started digging in, I agreed (the book was needed).”

Flint will be at the book signing planned Saturday at the Dawg Pound Restaurant in Ravenswood, 1125 Walnut St., where the union members would meet after a meeting or rally. The signing will coincide with the massive No Kings protest from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday in Charleston, Gorrell said.

Besides Flint, among the guests at the book signing will be Tom Breiding, who wrote a song about the retirees.

“He’s actually how I met Julia,” Gorrell said.

The collaboration started with conversations, then Flint began taking notes and she decided to write the book, her first. Other ideas are in the works, but nothing definite, Flint said.

“We Were Promised,” available at Amazon.com, was published by the University of Kentucky Press and was released on Tuesday. The 272-page hardback is $29.95 and will be available at a discount on Saturday, Flint said.

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com

Karen Gorrell at a February 2017 meeting when the $23 million settlement with the former Century Aluminum of Ravenswood was celebrated. The fight to regain the health insurance medicine benefits has been chronicled in a new book, “We Were Promised: How an Appalachian Grandmother Fought a Corporate Giant.”
(File photo)

“We Were Promised: How an Appalachian Grandmother Fought a Corporate Giant” by Julia Flint is the story of Karen Gorrell and retirees at Century Aluminum fighting to recover health insurance benefits canceled by the company. (Photo provided)